WSJ lays off Midwest reporter Kesling

Ben Kesling, who covers the Midwest in The Wall Street Journal’s Chicago bureau, was among the layoffs on Thursday.

He also wrote about national security and veterans’ issues.

A graduate of Wabash College, Kesling also has a master of divinity degree from Harvard University. He attended Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism and the Middlebury Language School for Arabic. He is also a two-day Jeopardy champion.

Kesling has won journalism awards from the New York Press Club and the Washington chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists. He is the author of the book “Bravo Company,” about an Army company’s harrowing deployment to Afghanistan and the soldiers’ decade of reckoning after.

Before joining the Journal, he was a U.S. Marine Corps infantry officer who deployed to both Iraq and Afghanistan.